Favourite European country to ski/board in.

Not been before, but booked it after speaking to people on this site! Looking forward to it....skiing looks great there!

Italy, its fun its quirky, its sunny, the people are fab and friendly, the food is superb not like Geordie Italian. Bar prices sensible and some brilliant resorts for all types eg Courmayer for families with not alot of skiing experience, Cervinia guaranteed sun and snow. Bormio lovely town. Selva Gardenia, fantastic, Val de Fassa brilliant, Cortina take a day trip to Venice during the Carnival in February and sit in a square in the sun sipping Pino Gricio or Campari. Saux d'oulx, dodgy snow but can be awesome in the milky way and great fun and cheap. On the downside the pistes can be a bit unclear sometimes but you get used to them. Oh and ski instruction is the best and the instructiors are wonderful as opposed to France where if you think 'allez' is ski instuuction and surly bad tempered french instructors and lift attendants are funnny then try Italy.

Allan Rothwell wrote:Italy, its fun its quirky, its sunny, the people are fab and friendly, the food is superb not like Geordie Italian. Bar prices sensible and some brilliant resorts for all types eg Courmayer for families with not alot of skiing experience, Cervinia guaranteed sun and snow. Bormio lovely town. Selva Gardenia, fantastic, Val de Fassa brilliant, Cortina take a day trip to Venice during the Carnival in February and sit in a square in the sun sipping Pino Gricio or Campari. Saux d'oulx, dodgy snow but can be awesome in the milky way and great fun and cheap. On the downside the pistes can be a bit unclear sometimes but you get used to them. Oh and ski instruction is the best and the instructiors are wonderful as opposed to France where if you think 'allez' is ski instuuction and surly bad tempered french instructors and lift attendants are funnny then try Italy.

I second that, Italy is my favourite country too. Never had a problem recognising ski runs though, found it better than France! They also have much more up-to-date lift systems in Italy with electronic passes, whereas in France (well, Alpe d'Huez to be precise) they still have a bucket lift and you need a photo on your pass which means they have to employ loads of lift attendants to check everyone's pass which was a bit of a pain. I would add Passo Tonale, Pila and Livigno to your list because they are all brilliant resorts. PT was great for our son to learn at and we could ski back to our hotel. Pila is a little known resort to Brits but I would thoroughly recommend it because it is all contained within a large bowl with loads to challenge even experienced skiers. We could also ski to our hotel! Livigno speaks for itself, a popular resort, duty free, loads to do and amazing skiing (just the long transfer of 4 hours puts some people off).

In fact we would choose Italy every time if it weren't for the fact we have a 20 month old baby who needs care, and unfortunately holiday companies in Italy have not yet got their act together as regards providing creches for babies so we had to go to France, which is better geared up in that respect. Also, Italy is a lot cheaper on the slopes to get a quick bombardino or La Bomba or hot chocolate. France was horrendous and in fact I couldn't find any hot alcoholic equivalents. :cry:

PS: I found the French nothing less than polite, however it helps greatly if you speak French, then they're nice as pie.